The speech part 3, or smoking and Chinese food

During my speech in German class I got a few off-the-topic questions, mostly related to alcohol and tobacco -

Is it true that you have to be 21 to drink and smoke in the U.S.?

Is it true that you can't smoke indoors in the U.S.?

Is it true that you can't drink on the street in the U.S.?

I guess my classmates are a little preoccupied.

Then on the way out, Elena stopped me to ask another question. Elena is a cellist from St. Petersburg, Russia. She is probably the smartest person in our class, but asked what was perhaps the most ignorant question I had heard all day.
"Is it true," she asked "that in America there are bars full of only black people, where white people are not allowed to go?"
"No, of course not," I told her, "but if you are the only white person in the bar, people might look at you funny when you walk in."

Then she went on to talk about how she once traveled to Atlanta with her orchestra for a performance. She talked about how many black people she saw and how scary that was. Then she talked about how wide the highways were and how strange the food was. She couldn't eat it. The whole orchestra ate only Chinese food the whole time they were in Atlanta. I guess they didn't like Southern cooking. 

Here in Germany, where most people we know are very well-traveled and speak a handful of languages, it's easy to feel like Americans are the only insulated ones. Europeans are amazed at how many Americans never leave the country.  So I took an odd satisfaction in hearing Elena's comments about the U.S. It made me feel like she'd be the kind of person to ask loudly how much something cost in "real money" and get angry about not being able to smoke indoors.

You can't smoke indoors in Germany either, so I don't understand why that was such an important question to ask. But what do I know, I am just an insensitive American.