personally, to give me versatility with the em tag later i'd just
em.r
{
color:red;
font-weight: normal;
}
Code:
blah blah blah before code
<td class="text">
This text is black according to the "text" class...but I need this <em class="r">word</em> to be red.
</td>
but it looks like you've already worked the problem out