Associate Professor Camille Nakhid cautions companies from jumping straight on the defence when being called out for being racist.

A Kiwi gardening company is defending one of its product logos, amid concerns the imagery is racist.

Yates, which was founded in Auckland in 1883, sells its seed-raising mix under the name "Black Magic" along with a caricature of a small black genie.

Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox was astounded when shown the image.

ROSS GIBLIN/FAIRFAX NZ Marama Fox wants Yates to reconsider the branding for its 'Black Magic' seed-raising mix.

"Blackface characters, and using them for marketing, is an inappropriate thing," she said.

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"It just is remarkable to me that we continue to use this kind of image, and think that this is ok in the 21st century."

BEVAN READ/FAIRFAX NZ Yates has no plans to change the branding of its 'Black Magic' product range.

Kara Beckford, who is of mixed black and Maori descent, said the image conjured up primitive ideas of what it meant to be black.

"Black magic is associated with evil and hedonism, which is derived from when they used to call Africa 'the dark continent'," she said.

Beckford has encountered similar stereotypes herself.

BEVAN READ/FAIRFAX NZ Dr Camille Nakhid says New Zealand faces an ongoing issue with institutional racism.

"I've had personal experiences of people using those kinds of discourses, saying 'are you going to do some voodoo on me?' Making a joke out of it," she said.

David Mortimer, New Zealand country manager for Yates, said the logo was not intended to be offensive.

He said it was created when the seed-raising mix was first developed in the 1950s, and workers commented it was a really magical product.

BEVAN READ/FAIRFAX NZ Yates came up with the branding when it developed its seed-raising mix in the 1950s.

"It's black because the product is black, and it's magic, hence the genie," he said.

"We certainly don't mean to cause any offence."

Dr Camille Nakhid, associate professor of social sciences at AUT University, said the image was problematic because it represented attitudes that were outdated and offensive.

"Caricatures are usually gross exaggerations of a particular group of people, and usually they are not positive," she said.

"They were from a time when white people had dominance, and had the privilege of creating whatever stereotypes they wanted."

Beckford said being black in New Zealand sometimes meant being treated like an exotic creature.

"People touch your hair, touch your skin, like you're just another object for them to gawk at," she said.

"It really makes you feel like an outsider, when people engage with you as an object, and not as a human being."

Nakhid said there was never any excuse for racist imagery.

"If we defend it once we are called out for it, and we continue to maintain it, then yes, we are racist," she said.

Nakhid said New Zealand faced an ongoing issue with institutional racism, which she believed were shown in the recent debate over Sir Peter 'the Mad Butcher' Leitch's comments to a young Maori woman on Waiheke Island.

"This is a changing world, and we can't continue to do the same things we did 50, 60 years ago," she said.

"We don't have that privilege any more, because people will call you to account for it."

Beckford hopes Yates will reconsider the branding for their "Black Magic" product range.

"If you're in a position of power, like this company is, then it's your responsibility to engage in conversation with people whose experiences are shaped by this kind of stuff," she said.

Fox was more direct.

"Yates should be re-examining their product range, and ensuring that they are not perpetrators of institutional racism, or just blatant ignorance," she said.

Mortimer said Yates had no plans to review or change the product branding.