I use the ColorStateList, find it more elegant. Here is an example :
tab_text.xml :
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<item android:state_selected="true" android:color="@color/tab_active" />
<item android:state_selected="false" android:color="@color/tab_inactive" />
</selector>
In your TextView, just set the textColor to point to this file with :
android:textColor="@color/tab_text"