we live in a society where children are banned from singing baa baa black sheep at school in case it offends someone

I wondered how long it would take before someone brought this up. This is a story from 1986, where it was alleged in the popular press that the nursery rhyme was seen as racially dubious. This was based only on a rewriting of the rhyme in one private nursery as an exercise for the children there and not on any local government policy. As expected the right wing press seized on and amplified this to create a news story about "political correctness gone mad". People have been citing it ever since whenever anyone questions "traditions" like blackface morris.

Meanwhile:

"Good afternoon ladies and gentleman. Today we're going to do some dancing that was invented in 1975. We've blacked up, but here are no racist connotations to what we are doing. The fact that the dances we are doing are loosely based on something that was referred to as 'niggering' in the 19th century should not give you any cause for concern. It's traditional, innit, so that makes it beyond criticism."