Emacs/X problems...

[Aaron Traas <adt6247@njit.edu>]

I'm using Woody/testing, and XFree86 4.x. I'm using emacsen flavor of
Emacs20. 

When I start emacs, using my trusty old .emacs file I've been keeping
and maintaining for years, The colors I've selected aren't quite working
right. Basically, I set the background color to black, and that works,
except or where there's text. Each character taken up by something other
than whitespace has a white background. I've determined it's something
to do with X, as the same .emacs file works beautifully when I export
the display to my Solaris box. 

Does anyone know how to either:
A) Have emacs override X's configuration
-or-
B) What *global* file I'm supposed to edit to make X behave nicely?

Thanks!

--Aaron Traas