Along with Southeast Asia, most of the world's fastest growing economies are in Africa. Africa is also seeing the world's fastest expansion in the number of cellphone users - that's an extremely lucrative business. China was probably the first country to take notice of this, and Chinese corporations are working hard to tap into this market.
They can produce value if we make them, yeah. And of course, they can be consumers of goods. Look, I can't really sum up every experience I've had, or everything I've watched in a few posts. Look a the debates in the south african parliament, or read about the history of south africa and zimbabwe. Watch "empire of dust" and the race relations in this documentary. Look at crimerates around the world and how they correlate with race, not culture. Live, like me, in a country where the native population is being replaced by subsaharan africans. I know a lot of blacks. I work with a lot of blacks. There are outliers but it's simply obvious that on the whole, they are not the same as us and racial differences not just skin-deep. Adoption and twin studies (seriously just google that shit) are a confirmation of that. I've read a lot of them and found the criticisms very weak and often missing the point.
I can't make you read that stuff or experience the reality of blacks.
I don't know why you're so fixated on "economic" significance anyway.
follow the link to the OP, it made sense in context. Also I don't hate black people.