Earlier quoted context omitted.
Stop with the gray text on the white background. On the device I'm on I can't make out the text well enough to read comfortably, so I bailed. And realistically I won't come back to the article on another device later on.
Agreed, see http://contrastrebellion.com/ . We can't all be on the highest contrast screens and have perfect eyesight. The font should be black.
I understand the sentiment (and we'll be improving the overall contrast issue), but just saying the font should be black doesn't help anyone. White is still the overwhelmingly most popular background color for text online, and nobody is doing black text on white; this also becomes uncomfortable for many readers. We(I) made some guesses about what looked good on our test devices, and it turns out the general consensus is it should be a little heavier and a little darker. Certainly not black, though.