“Higher self esteem” would seem to be just a new name for what we used to call “overconfidence”. Confidence is wonderful, without some degree of confidence a person is powerless, I know because I have been in that condition, afraid to try because I “knew” I could not succeed. On the other hand overconfidence causes one to believe he already possesses knowledge and skills when in fact he is lacking. This can result in problems of all kinds, up to and including death. When the overconfident are put in charge they create disasters of all kinds, the current situation in the USA would be a prime example. Install a totally unqualified community organizer as president and rather than seeing the Earth begin to heal itself as he claimed you will see what we are seeing, a nation destroying itself.
It's worse than that. Average black IQ is 80 vs 100 for whites. 80% of blacks have a lower IQ than the average white person. This is why blacks will never be represented in the professions in numbers proportional to their presence in the general population. Per capita, far more blacks than whites lack the raw talent to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to enter those professions. Telling them to work harder is a lot like telling elite white athletes to keep plugging away at winning the 100m sprint at the Olympics.