They’re elves with black to purplish skin. Slim, delicate-looking, and sharp-featured.
This is the first illustration of drow published. Does it look like African-Americans to you?
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One of the problems with illustrating drow is it’s difficult to illustrate characters with black - actually black, not brown - skin. So artists fell back on drawing them with brown skin. And at the time of that GDQ illustration, TSR artists were using real-world models for their work. Which is why they all look like extras from cheesy 80s action movies