Load X resources when KDE starts on Linux Mint

I previously was using MATE and XTerm always starts with a black background. I'm not sure why, but when I start XTerm in KDE, I get a white background. This is terrible for me so I want to change this default behaviour. I have attempted different solutions that are posted online but none of them work for me. Here are some of them: - Making a .Xdefaults file in the home directory and setting the options there - Making a .XTerm file in the home directory and setting the options there - Making a .Xresources file and setting the options there - Unchecking "Apply colors to non-KDE4 applications" in the KDE control center An interesting thing to note is that under MATE, the XTerm background is black and foreground is white, but I'm not even sure why. I can't change the defaults in MATE either. I also tried using the following command, and this works for the current session, but it seems that it doesn’t stay between sessions, and it gets annoying having to [google this command](http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse/2012-04/msg00651.html) every time I start up my computer printf 'xterm*background: black\nxterm*foreground: white\n' | xrdb -merge I am looking for a solution, not a workaround. Workarounds include things like starting xterm and explicitly specifying the background and foreground colors, or using an alias for XTerm, or setting the color after XTerm has started, or running a script before or during the use of XTerm. There has to be a cause to this problem somewhere and I'd like to find out what it is. I'm using Linux Mint Nadia (13.04).