The Rapper and the Golliwog

Last night, American hip hop artist Big Boi of Outkast performed at the Powerstation in Auckland.

For the couple of nights he spent in Auckland, it was interesting to follow his journeys around the city on Twitter. News website Stuff even went to the effort of mapping his night out for a news story:

View Big Boi's Auckland adventure in a larger map

It was all the usual kind of stuff you'd expect a world famous hip hop star to enjoy on a night off. A visit to a strip club

"Strip club , no brown girls eh... (@ Calendar Girls Auckland)"

A bar...

"1st Stop , they playing Jimi H. Leeeeeegggggooo (@ Barrio w/ 2 others)"

And of course, McDonald's...

"Fish filet time , back to the presidential #weoutchea (@ McDonald's)"

But today, as he was at Auckland International Airport preparing to fly to Australia, he found something pretty shocking:

"Ok, all blacks is a rugby team, but what the fuck are these, also in the airport"

Yip, right there in our busiest airport, a few weeks out from the Rugby World Cup, he found golliwogs for sale.

I've never actually seen golliwogs for sale in New Zealand, let along in the airport.

I'm intrigued as to how these relatively new looking golliwogs came to be for sale in a store. Are we at a point of post-racism now where it's ok to sell them? Or is this more a case of ignorance? Either way, it's a terrible look for New Zealand, and especially for the shop that's selling them.