bgcolor is not an attribute of body in xhtml. This is what I believe Orion is pointing out.

The key is to declare the FG before the BG in your CSS. Stating the colors in html, body{} is a good place to start.

Safe Practice: always specify both FG and BG together in your rules, for all instances, even if FG or BG are inherited. It won't make it any more valid, but it will keep all the color warnings at bay when you validate your CSS. The reasoning has been explained elsewhere in the forum, but the main reason is to ensure that the user sees the colors you specify, and not their default system colors.