Brooklyn’s borough president has been criticized after telling people to “go back to Iowa” in a speech on gentrification in New York City, in which he said black and brown people were being pushed out.

Eric Adams, who has said he is “pursuing” a run for mayor in 2021 but has not formally declared, made the comments at a Martin Luther King Jr Day event on Monday.

Lamenting racial inequality in Brooklyn and the city as a whole, Adams reportedly said: “Black and brown people are being pushed out of the borough they made possible.”

Adams told the crowd at an event hosted by civil rights organisation the National Action Network: “You were waking up to gunshots and not alarm clocks, and you stayed.

“You were here before Starbucks. You were here before others came and decided they wanted to be part of this city. Folks are not only hijacking your apartments and displacing your living arrangements, they displace your conversations and say the things that are important to you are no longer important, and they decide what’s important and what’s not important.

“Go back to Iowa. You go back to Ohio. New York City belongs to the people that [were] here and made New York City what it is.”

Adams was criticized by the New York Daily News, which described his comments as “racially charged”.

Bob Capano, who was the director of community relations to Adams’ predecessor, also disapproved. He said: “Given their lack of real power, the main job of a [borough president] is to be a cheerleader for all of Brooklyn, not divide it.”

The Ohio Republican party chairman, Robert Frost, told the New York Post New Yorkers were welcome to move to his state.

He said: “We got a lot of great things going on in Ohio. Ohio has an open door if people are frustrated in New York.”

Adams addressed the controversy on Twitter.

He wrote: “Let me be clear: anyone can be a New Yorker, but not everyone comes to our city with the spirit of being part of our city. I have a problem with that, and I’m unapologetic in asking more of our new arrivals to communities who were once waking up to gunshots and not alarm clocks.”

Responding to a Twitter question from a member of the New York Times editorial board, Adams added: “Some of it is as simple as saying hello to your fellow neighbours. It’s also patronising local businesses that have been there for years. It’s adopting a local school or shelter and lending a hand. It’s breaking bread with new faces and building bonds.”

According to the Furman Center, 37.2% of New Yorkers were born outside the US. About 48% of residents were born in New York state, but not necessarily in the city.