Dunkin’ Donuts rant backfires. Employees get the raves.

It’s the second story of fast food and recorded racism to come out of Florida in the past month (see: Papa John’s accidental voicemail rant). But this one, at least, has a somewhat happy ending.

Two young Dunkin’ Donuts employees working in a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., store are receiving widespread applause for keeping calm in the face of a racist rant from an irate customer. The story goes like this: Last week, a woman named Taylor Chapman walked into the Dunkin’ Donuts claiming that she hadn’t received a receipt for a meal purchased the night before. She demanded a free meal and began to rant. 

Ms. Chapman even recorded the eight-minute rant on her iPhone, repeatedly warning the workers that they were “under video surveillance” and that she was planning to post the video online, all the while pillorying them with profanities and racial epithets. She also harassed customers in the store, who largely ignored her.

The cashier who endured it the longest, later identified by “The Smoking Gun” as teenager Abid Adar, is unfailingly polite throughout, offering Chapman a free meal immediately and listening patiently to her order.

Chapman posted the video online, it went viral, and the online public vilified her while lauding Mr. Adar and his co-worker, identified as Nithi, for keeping their cool. Dunkin’ Donuts has publicly commended the two, releasing a statement saying that it will honor them at a company event in Florida later this year, without getting specific.

"Dunkin' Brands' leadership has reached out to the two crew members featured in the video," a Dunkin Brands spokesperson told NBC News via e-mail. "Both have been invited to an internal company event in Boca Raton later this month for further recognition."

But some around the Web thought what the pair endured was so awful that they deserved monetary compensation. One, identifying himself as Carl from San Antonio, even set up an online fundraiser called “Sorry Abid Adar and Nithi,” intending the proceeds be divided equally between the two to go “towards their educational aspirations.”

“I read that Abid is 18, recently graduated, and has aspirations of being a doctor,” he writes. “I haven't seen what Nithi's aspirations are, but I wanted to counteract this swarm of negativity that happened to these two, by giving them a foot up in pursuit of their education and careers…. I saw a chance to [turn] some really bad nasty bitter lemons into lemonade, and I'm hoping that enough people will support this endeavor.”

As of Thursday afternoon, the campaign has raised $6,886 of its $10,000 goal.