Big Sur Menu Bar

the menubar will appear different depending on your background picture.

if you want to change the menubar to permanently stay grey with black lettering go into SystemPreferences>Accessibility in the display tab and checkmark "Reduce transparency"

the OP asked about the menubar. "light" or "dark" in system preferences>general changes the open application's toolbar/window, but it has no effect on the menubar. at least that's what happens on my machine.

Old Toad wrote:

Exactly what you said: if he enables Increase Contrast and Reduce Transparency in the System/Accessibility/Display preference pane

sorry, i misread your post. i totally missed the "exactly what you said" part.

It must be catching as I've been missing a lot of comments or parts of comments today. Can't wait for 5 o'clock to come around for a drink. Wait, as my good friend says: it's always 5 o'clock somewhere. Bye!

Turn off Dark Mode in the System/General preference pane by clicking on the Light button:

Exactly what you said: if he enables Increase Contrast and Reduce Transparency in the System/Accessibility/Display preference pane

the menu bar will remain white with black text.

i don't me to be rude, but i already said that in my above post. :) with a screenshot of the difference.

just pretend you're visiting me. it IS past 5 o'clock here.:)

That works for me.