i want finder text to be black on white background, not grey on grey

On my macbook, Finder folders and files appear in lists with dim grey font on a background of dark grey or maybe black (I can't tell) with the result nearly impossible to read. I found something somewhere in settings so that I could increase the contrast of the font (systemwide? i suspect so but i don't want to work to find out.). While this makes the names of folders nicely visible, the names of files seem to have become even dimmer.

I want black text on white background. (Does this have to be hard?) [comment: Lots of pretty colors, and a different color for folders and each file type (I'm colorblind), or fashionable grey on paler grey (I want to read the words,not impress others with my coolness), aren't good enough. I want black as in deep dark black cat in coal mine at midnight black, and white as in a snowball in a blizzard in Antarctica white.]

Sorry for the crankiness. Yes, I'm frustrated.

Thank you.

Dan