I couldn't figure out how to change that value programmatically or via xml aside from altering the base parent theme. I ended up changing my theme to inherit from Theme.AppCompat
and set the titleTextStyle (https://stackoverflow.com/a/5881739/413254). I was inheriting from Theme.AppCompat.Light
which naturally makes all text in the actionbar dark. Another option was to inherit from Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar
(which would have saved me a lot from multiple xml style headaches).
One of those situations where you get caught up in the details and miss the more fundamental things :P. Hope this helps somebody.