simple color scheme

[peter hodgson <imputerate@puteracy.com>]

ubuntu [hardy]
 emacs: 22.1-0ubuntu10
   gnus: 5.11+v0.5.dfsg
slackware [12.0]
 emacs: 22.2-i486-1

i need to get rid of the complex color schemes in my gnus mail buffer,
 (Message MML Fly +Chg Abbrev Fill)
and my major emacs composing mode,
  (Parindent Fly +Chg);

i want a white [not gray] background,
black foreground,
and yellow for spelling mistakes;

do i have to purge all mention of color from .bashrc, .bash_profile,
/etc/X11/Xresources, etc.? 

can i start over with a few simple lines? i've googled and read up on
this topic, but nothing i've tried can even get rid of the gray
background;

send me to the appropriate info source; thanks, imputerate