Likewise, the press and many civil-society groups documented and publicized not only the killings of Brown, Garner, and others, but also how those cases reflected a pattern of racially disparate treatment by the police. And when Obama announced the restoration of full diplomatic relations with Cuba, the White House described the last half-century of US policy as a “failed approach,” isolating the US, constraining its influence in hemispheric politics, and tying its hands in Cuba itself.