When you choose to play a human, the game doesn't ask you to choose between being a human that grew up in an orphanage or a human that follows Lathander, nor does it ask if you are a good human or an evil human - you're just a human. I don't understand why it should be any different for drow.
It's different for Gith, Duegar and Drow because the respective gods of the races made claims to those souls at birth. Humans, surface elves, halflings etc are born free to choose. In one case choice is assumed, in the another choice is a heroic act.
They are conflating race/species with cultural background and personal alignment.
Switching from (fantasy) race to culture doesn't get one of this conundrum. (
note that I am giving voice to opinions I do not hold) "Why did Spain have the right to colonize south america? Because those cultures were -- culturally -- evil. They practiced human sacrifice, they took slaves, they practiced ritualistic torture . . . If they convert, all will be well."
So we have the same problem of othering expressed in cultural, not racial terminology. Race was not as important to the Spanish as it was to the English (come Americans) because in England you had the rise of a new class that was in need of a new ideology to justify their action while in Spain republican movements would be stymied until latest days of the age of empire. You can actually find accounts of advocates of indigenous genocide in the U.S. being made by people who believed that the 'other' was biologically superior in some way.
Witness Matizca -- the
South Americans Matizcans are all evil despite the fact they are all humans. The colonial power,
Spain Amn, is not evil but Lawful Neutral. The clash between civilization is just inevitable and tragic.
(again, who the hell approved this setting?)
So 'culturally evil' takes us from the frying pan of 'racism' to the fire of colonialism. I truly believe that moving from (fantasy) race to culture causes more problems than it solves. Better to say that:
1. Fantasy races are not analogues for real world peoples (and have policies in place to make sure this is the case)
2. Race does not exist in the real world. You hairy footed friend is not really part halfling despite what you might suspect.
3. Unlike in our world evil is real force in the world and evil gods exist.
So evil gods make some 'races' evil and a handful of individuals are able to break the chains that the evil gods have bound around their souls.
