Change the font color on Gnome panels

Thanks to this forum thread at ubuntuforums.org, I discovered how to change the font color on panels in gnome.

In the home directory, create a file called .gtkrc-2.0 and then add the following code:

style "panel"
{
    bg[NORMAL]               = "#XXXXXX"
    fg[NORMAL]               = "#XXXXXX"
}
widget "*PanelWidget*" style "panel"
widget "*PanelApplet*" style "panel"
class "*Panel*" style "panel"
widget_class "*Mail*" style "panel"
class "*notif*" style "panel"
class "*Notif*" style "panel"
class "*Tray*" style "panel"
class "*tray*" style "panel"

Replace the #XXXXXX with what ever color your heart desires. Then log out , and when you come back, the font color will be updated.

Have fun!